Former Vice President Joe Biden completed the greatest turnaround of political fortunes in American history in the last four days.
Thought to be a “lost cause”, he accomplished the winning of 10 of 14 primaries on Super Tuesday, after winning South Carolina last Saturday, and left Bernie Sanders in the distance.
He also caused Michael Bloomberg to withdraw today, but pledge all financial help to the Biden and Democratic Party campaign to retire Donald Trump from the Oval Office.
What Biden did is in many ways a miracle, but it could not happen to a nicer, more decent, more compassionate, more empathetic, and more genuine man than Joe Biden.
Biden has dedicated the past half century to public service, serving 36 years in the US Senate, and 8 years as the most active and engaged Vice President in American history!
His persona looks even better when compared to the Vice Presidents before and after him–Dick Cheney and Mike Pence!
Joe Biden is not perfect, and has votes and statements and silly flubs as part of his record that can be used against him.
But he KNOWS domestic and foreign policy, and would be the most experienced public official in total years ever to be President.
The man knows how to lead, as he did as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
And he knows the importance of “crossing the aisle” when possible. which is essential for any progress on any public issue.
There are some worried about his mental lapses, but my thought is that if it ever was clear that he needed to step aside and resign, he would do so, and that makes the Vice Presidential nomination more important than ever before.
He would not stay on in poor condition as Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan did, and as Donald Trump would do.
Biden needs to select a much younger person, who could be his successor, and this blogger suggests Julian Castro, Pete Buttigieg, and Kamala Harris as his top three choices.
We need to pray for him, that he can meet the challenge of retiring Donald Trump, and restoring faith in American government.
Well, Wall Street certainly liked Biden coming back from the dead. That’s should tell everybody something about Uncle Joe. Those folks on the Street know exactly who their friends in high places are.
Those are some good choices I would like to see him paired with.
Now that Biden is the front runner again, ReThuglicans are trying to smear him again.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/4/1924327/-Fascism-Hours-after-Biden-wins-Senate-Republicans-relaunch-Biden-probe
Another good reason to vote ReThuglicans out in November.
Sounds like Little Donnie is scared again of running against Biden.
Elizabeth Warren has dropped out.
Well, Wall Street dips every time Trump says something stupid about the coronavirus, so I don’t blame them for hoping Joe wins the nomination and beats Trump in November.
Steve Bullock is running for Senate in Montana.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/05/politics/steve-bullock-montana/index.html
Super Tuesday Results Demonstrate That Caucuses Suppress the Vote
Voting surged in the states that ditched them in favor of primaries.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/03/05/super-tuesday-results-demonstrate-that-caucuses-suppress-the-vote/
The good news coming out of Super Tuesday is that turnout went up significantly in several states. For example:
[Roughly 1.3 million people, or 23% of registered Democrats, cast a ballot in the Virginia contest Tuesday, nearly double the number of votes recorded in 2016 when 14% of registered Democrats voted. Tuesday’s participation also shattered records set in 2008, when almost 1 million votes were cast and the turnout rate hit 20%…
And turnout was up by about 200,000 votes over 2016 in neighboring North Carolina, where Biden easily won by roughly 20 percentage points…
Voters in Texas also turned out in droves. Results from 97% of precincts show that nearly 1.9 million voters cast a ballot Tuesday, easily exceeding the 1.4 million total from the 2016 primary.]
The good news for Joe Biden’s campaign is that the former vice president won all three of those states. But as we look at the reasons for higher turnout on Tuesday, it is important to keep in mind that several factors might have contributed to the overall results.
As part of the DNC’s Unity Reform Commission’s changes to the nomination process, the party adopted measures to discourage states from holding caucuses. On Tuesday, four states that made the switch to primaries voted, and the results are clear.
[In all four caucus-ditching states, turnout surged dramatically from 2016 to 2020:
* In Colorado, turnout more than sextupled from around 122,000 in 2016, with all votes counted, to more than 755,000 in 2020, with nearly 99 percent of precincts reporting.
* In Maine, turnout more than quadrupled from nearly 47,000, based on an estimate from Democratic officials, to more than 194,000, with 90 percent of precincts reporting.
* In Minnesota, turnout nearly quadrupled from more than 205,000, with all votes counted, to more than 745,000, with more than 99 percent of precincts reporting.
* In Utah, turnout more than doubled from more than 77,000, with all votes counted, to nearly 175,000, with 99 percent of precincts reporting.]
While the caveat that correlation does not prove causation is in order, those results are astounding and certainly provide fodder for the case that caucuses suppress turnout. Here is how Stacey Abrams, one of the most vocal opponents of voter suppression, put it:
[Four #SuperTuesday states moved from caucuses to primaries this year.
CO participation is up 517% from 2016 and still counting
ME is up 304% and still counting
MN is up 264%
UT is up 120% and still counting
Democracy is stronger when more people are able to participate.]
In 2016, Sanders won all four of those states, while on Tuesday, he only carried two of them—Colorado and Utah. The split, along with the fact that Sanders won Colorado by 12 points, indicates that the surge in voter participation wasn’t limited to one candidate in the race. There are, however, some Sanders supporters who continue to favor caucuses.
[“In Minnesota… when we had the caucuses, exclusively focused on building coalitions around the policies that we all cared about, Senator Bernie Sanders won it handily” -@Ilhan]
Over the next few months, we will learn whether or not these kinds of results hold when four more states that switched from caucuses hold their primaries, including Washington, Idaho, Nebraska, and Hawaii. Meanwhile, other than Iowa and Nevada, the two remaining states that will hold caucuses are North Dakota and Wyoming.
The decision about whether to hold caucuses or primaries is up to the states. But as they did with the Unity Reform Commission, the DNC can pressure them to make the change. The debacle in Iowa, combined with these results, highlight why that is important. At a minimum, the DNC should exclude states that hold caucuses from being among the first four to vote.
While celebrating the turnout surge we saw in some states on Tuesday, it is still worth noting that we have a long way to go when only 23 percent of registered Democrats in Virginia went to the polls. Frankly, that is abysmal, so there’s still a lot of work to do. That includes fighting any effort to suppress the vote while championing proposals to increase participation. But first, Democrats need to clean their own house and get rid of caucuses.
Bernie seems to be underperforming in 2020 compared to 2016. I’m beginning to suspect that his huge wins against Hillary in 2016 were more about some people being anti-Hillary and less about his policies.
The only places he seems to have gained support are Latino-heavy states – Nevada, Colorado, and he did better in Texas in 2020 than in 2016.